Inclusive of my rant day before yesterday against spoiled gangster athletes, I hate it when things get obviously, wackily out of control in society. Compensation falls into that category just now. Yes, I know, it is always a bit skewed towards famous people, but is has gotten well past the point of ridiculousness. It is having an increasingly negative effect … Continue reading
Not long ago, maybe two or three years, there was a feeling that the issues around global warming were not the problem of the current generation. Our generation, and the ones immediately preceding it, had certainly caused the problem through the overuse of fossil fuels: gasoline, coal, natural gas, and so on. Eventually, that was going to cause a lot … Continue reading
The 2008 election appears to be on cruise control. We have untenable candidates that say they are being unfairly ignored, even though they are being ignored because they are untenable candidates. We have Democrats sniping at Democrats, Republicans sniping at Republicans, and Democrats and Republicans sniping at each other. We have celebrities joining in the fun, clouding all the issues, … Continue reading
It’s not really a secret, but the Kansas Curmudgeon was born in Nebraska. In Omaha, to be exact. The same Omaha that was the site of the shopping mall shooting earlier in the week. I had worked right across Dodge street from the Westroads Center for quit a while before I moved, at a tender age, to California. Incidents such … Continue reading
I was sent an excellent column today by a friend. It was written By Tom Friedman and appeared in the New York Times, in the guise of an intelligence report to President Ahmadinejad of Iran. It is well worth reading in its entirety, and I hope that you do so. One of the things that it talks about is the … Continue reading
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson indicated today that the U.S. government is hard at work putting together a program to help “struggling mortgage holders.” I have a question. Where the hell was Henry Paulson, his predecessors, and the rest of the supposed watchdogs in government when the mortgage lenders were granting loans that the borrowers were obviously going to be unable … Continue reading
This is nothing new, but a report on CNN Money today states once again the middle class in our country is being squeezed financially. It seems that they are paying more for almost everything, especially housing, gasoline, and health care. These costs are cause the American middle class, always the prototypical hard workers, to work even harder to maintain their … Continue reading
There is a rich tradition in politics, worldwide, of the “Loyal Opposition.” Wikipedia defines this as “the concept that one can be opposed to the actions of the government or ruling party of the day without being opposed to the constitution of the political system.” Somehow, we seem to have lost track of that in the United States. George W. … Continue reading
There are many things that I do not understand, but I really don’t understand the current overwhelming attraction to make-believe. We are deeply involved in a war in which we have no business. Our President is even more deeply involved in stripping the Bill of Rights away from our Constitution. The opposition party, such as they are, seems unwilling or … Continue reading
One hates to see NASA have the difficulties that they are currently experiencing. They have enough trouble with aging equipment and an embarrassing lack of budgetary support. Even the most fervent anti-NASA flat-earther would have to admit that we get a lot more out of the space program than we get out the wars that we are currently spending billions … Continue reading